Preferences as Memory

该提案考察了偏好，这是决策科学和经济学中的一个关键概念，是人类记忆系统的自然输出，遵循其他类型知识的性质和特征。这种把偏好当做记忆的方法表明，偏好既不是每次都从基本原则上重新构建的，也不是完全稳定和一成不变的。本研究试图通过考察偏好构建所涉及的记忆机制来解释和预测偏好偏离理性经济模型处方的重要现象(包括损失厌恶、跨期贴现和权衡难度)。其中包括启动，即在提出相关概念后概念的可及性瞬间增加；抑制或干扰，即指令回忆先前学习的材料的一部分，阻碍随后对其余材料的回忆；反应性，即对记忆的访问导致其内容和结构的变化；记忆表征的结构，即概念属性的数量及其相互联系的系统。所提出的理论和实证工作有以下三个目的：(1)使行为决策研究者相信，他们忽视了偏好形成和表达的(记忆)过程，这是危险的；(2)证明目前对大多数外显记忆过程的考虑是不完整的；(3)证明结合少量成熟的记忆特性提供了对大量偏好和选择现象的概念整合，这些现象包括从损失厌恶到折衷困难、次可加性、锚定和过度自信。对社会具有重要意义的实际应用也源于记忆框架的使用，用于理解偏好的形成和改变。例如，更好地了解记忆过程和偏好构建的发展变化可能有助于设计干预措施，将记忆表现变化对老年人群判断和选择的社会有害后果降至最低。

The proposal examines preference, a key construct in decision science and economics, as the natural output of the human memory system, following the properties and characteristics of other types of knowledge. This preferences-as-memory approach suggests that preferences are neither "constructed" from first principles anew on each occasion, nor completely stable and immutable. The research attempts to explain and predict important phenomena in which preference deviates from rational-economic model prescription (including loss aversion, intertemporal discounting, and tradeoff difficulty) by examining the memory mechanisms involve in preference construction. These include priming, i.e., a transient increase in the accessibility of a concept after presentation of a related concept; inhibition or interference, i.e., a class of phenomena where instructions to recall parts of previously learned materials hinders subsequent recall of the rest; reactivity, i.e. where access of memory produces changes in its content and structure; structure of memory representations, i.e., the number of concept attributes and the system of their interconnections. The proposed theoretical and empirical work has the following three purposes: (1) to convince behavioral decision researchers that they are ignoring the (memory) processes involved in the formation and expression of preference at their peril, (2) to demonstrate that current considerations of mostly explicit memory processes are incomplete, and (3) to show that the incorporation of a small number of well established memory properties provides conceptual integration across a large number of preference and choice phenomena that range from loss aversion to tradeoff difficulty, subadditivity, anchoring, and overconfidence. Societally important practical applications also arise from the use of a memory framework for understanding the formation and modification of preferences. A better understanding of developmental changes in memory processes and preference construction could help, for example, to design interventions that would minimize socially harmful consequences of changes in memory performance on judgment and choice in geriatric populations.